Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN!
Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2015.

I was away giving a presentation, and then attending the Chula Vista Genealogical Society program meeting this afternoon, so I was surprised when I got home by the announcement. Fortunately, I got home in time to participate in a geneablogger telephone call with Tim Sullivan (CEO of Ancestry.com) and Joe Godfrey (Archives.com management).

Some of the things I think I heard on the telephone call:

* Tim Sullivan noted that Archives.com provides a different product set, different features, and a different user experience than Ancestry.com.

* Tim noted that Archives.com would be a separate entity within Ancestry.com, similar to Fold3 and Genealogy.com.

* Joe Goddard said that Archives.com would continue to make family history simple and affordable.

* Tim said that the acquisition is subject to anti-trust provisions, and the two operations will be separate for some period of time until they get approval.

* Joe noted that about 40 Archives.com employees would be part of the Ancestry team after the acquisition, and that they would try to keep the team together. Inflection would keep the other entities (like PeopleSmart and Identity.com).

* Tim said this was an important product to invest in and to improve over time.

* Tim said Ancestry has tremendous respect for the way Archives has partnered with the 1940 census project and other projects.

* Joe said that there will be no change to the 1940 Census indexing project, and that the project index will be separate from the Ancestry index.

* Tim said that the acquisition was not intended to shut down a competitor, but a way to improve their company.

*Tim said that there are some technology features on Archives.com that Ancestry could use. He said their intent is to not mess up what Archives.com has, figure out how to leverage Archives technology to help Ancestry, and to use the technology and human capital to make all of Ancestry entities better.

* The question was asked about the status of Genealogy.com, another Ancestry entity that has not been improved for several years. Tim said that they have not optimized this site, and that it's hard to improve the dated technology in the Genealogy.com platform without starting over. He asked for suggestions as to what Ancestry should put onto the Genealogy.com platform. Thomas MacEntee suggested making it the education center for Ancestry. After the call, I thought that moving all of Rootsweb.com to Genealogy.com (mailing lists, message boards, user sites, some databases, etc.) makes a lot of sense - it gets it out from under the Ancestry URL umbrella also.

This was an interesting discussion, and I appreciate being included by the Ancestry.com and Archives.com team. If I misinterpreted any of the above, I will be happy to correct my statements.

Disclosure: I currently have paid subscriptions to both Ancestry.com and Archives.com, but I have accepted subscriptions, travel expenses and gifts from both companies over the years. Those items have not influenced my objectivity as far as I can tell.

Nice coverage, Randy. I was on the call too, but having some technical issues, so thank you for filling me in on what I missed. Did they mention the DNA schedule at all? I was listening for that and didn't hear anything.CeCe

Search This Blog with Google

Follow by Email

Subscribe To

About Me

I am a native San Diegan, a graduate of San Diego State University, a retired aerospace engineer, a genealogist and a family guy.
My wife (Angel Linda) and I have two lovely daughters, and four darling grandchildren. We love to visit them and have them visit us.
Angel Linda and I love to travel to visit friends and relatives, to sightsee, to cruise or to do genealogy. Our travels have taken us all over the USA, to England, Down Under and Scandinavia.
For earlier posts (not visible on the main post list), please see the Archives listed below by month.
If you like my blog, please put it in your Favorites or Bookmarks and visit regularly.
Contact me via email at randy.seaver@gmail.com